For the month of July, the NY Coo gallery is happy to present a collaborative exhibition, “Sakura Flutter” consisting of calligraphy, photography and hats.
“Sakura Flutter” will be exhibiting three artists’ individual signature artwork; Kayon’s calligraphy; Ailink’s photography; and aco’s handmade hats, as well as their unique collaborative pieces.
Born in Shizuoka prefecture, Ink painter Kayon started calligraphy at the young age of five. To this day, she is studying under a well respected mentor to continuously improve her calligraphy skills. She has gone beyond the authentic beauty of calligraphy and incorporated various forms of art such as photography, make-up and flower arrangements to create her own style. Yet, despite her trendy/exotic/unconventional style, she has great respect for Japanese culture and is exploring in depth kouta (Edo period Japanese classical music), shamisen (3 stringed Japanese instrument), and kimono (traditional clothes). While she hopes to enlarge her vision from living abroad, she hopes to express her Japanese side to influence her art. In this specific show, she will be showing her Chinese calligraphy pieces from old texts in addition to her smaller original pieces.
Ailink, a photographer is originally from Nagano prefecture. Having a grandfather who is a doctor and a father who is a pharmacist, she naturally became interested in the medical field at a young age. Hence she graduated with a pharmacy degree and became a pharmacist in Tokyo. However at around the same time, as she started to travel around the world her passion grew to include photography. In particular, she became passionate about the ways that she is able to express herself via photography. As she began to discover herself, she built her own personal collection, as well as collaborating with other artists from various genres including music, film, painting and calligraphy. She thus decided to use Ailink as her artist name, based on her strong belief that she wants to assist in linking people as well as linking opportunities. The photographic collection that will be exhibited, “ephemeral”, will feature seasonal transitions and beautiful moments, as well as pictures from trips she has taken along with poems she has written. Finally, she will be depicting her additional theme of “color” in her photography.
Hat designer, aco is from Saitama prefecture. Her interest in hats began while she was studying at Bunnka Fukusougakuin (Cultural Clothing Institute) and in 2005 she started up her own brand, “rawumber plus hat.” To further build her career as a hat designer, she moved to England for about 2 years. While gaining more knowledge and experience, in 2007 she started designing hats for the “OLDMAN” hat boutique in Japan. She is also very active in custom made hats for clienteles in music videos, films and CD/album covers. Aco loves nature and she believes natural sources such as trees, sky and wind gives her inspiration and profound energy. She uses renewable/plantable materials such as natural herbs (Panama straw, buntal), felt, leather, buttons, silk ribbon for her hats. Her collection is entitled “harvest,” alluding to the way that her ideas which originated in Japan are coming to fruition in New York. In fact, her brand name “rawumber plus hat” comes from raw umber, a natural brown pigment which becomes more intense when heated, pertaining to the capacity for the hat to “grow” and be extraordinary.
The three artists’ collaborative pieces that will be exhibited include “Tokyo Otome (girl)” in which Kayon is the model in the photograph, emphasizing the beauty in traditional Japanese culture, as well as art pieces that express the three artists’ views and beliefs on flutters of sakura (cherry blossoms).
Sakura is known to be the richly symbolic flower of Japan and it represents many aspects of Japanese cultural tradition. The transience of the blossoms, known as “hanadoki” (the time from when flowers bloom to when they shrivel) and in specific, “sakuradoki” (the time from when sakura blossoms to when they falls) will be depicted through calligraphy, photograph and hats collaboration.
The beauty involved in such a phenomenon of sakura flutter, is portrayed via eyes of these young, avant garde artists all from the 1980s. Please come and enjoy the refreshing, new, lively impression of Japanese culture in this exhibition. NY Coo Gallery |
